


Up all night.

by youngjusticewriter



Series: Oops I did it again. [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Characters on the path towards dealing with their trauma, Dead Robins Club, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Pre-New 52, Steph is the Queen of unconventional weapons, Time Travel, and my heart, kinda of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-03 00:30:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15807648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngjusticewriter/pseuds/youngjusticewriter
Summary: "I saw the light on. I figured the reason you were up was the same as mine," Jason explained to her. There was silence between them before Steph couldn't stand it anymore."Well I guess I'll never get to scratch off 'unwillingly be sacrificed to Slenderman' my bucket list." The joke kinda (okay not kinda as much as absolutely) fell flat at the confused look in Jason's eyes."Slenderman?"Steph winced. "My bad. He's a future creepy pasta thing."Jason confused expression growing would have been laughable if Steph wasn't saying hello to awkward silence her old friend that she'd come to see again.





	Up all night.

Stephanie woke up thrashing about in her new bed. It took a few minutes for her heart to calm down. During that that time Steph had put a hand on her head to push back through her hair; it was nervous habit she'd picked up from who knows where. 

Eventually Steph sat up, eyes squinted at the shapes on the queen sized bed. It took longer than it should to realize what they were: her textbooks and, oh, she apparently had kicked her sheets into this sorta creepy lump. 

As her hands shook Steph wished for Netflix. 

The only noise in the room was the slow whirling of the fan above her and the crickets outside the manor. Stephanie blankly stared at said fan - her mind years away. 

It's funny how you don't think of these things until whatever time it was in the night, Steph thought as the fan slowly kept going and going like a circle. Fingers dug into the the sheets she hadn't kicked off during her nightmare of the Joker. (If she closed her eyes and focused Stephanie was pretty sure she could imagine the crack Jason's skull had made in her dream.) Was her mom going to wake Steph up only to realize her daughter wasn't there? Was- there was no was and that realization stung more than a slap. Had mom went to her room to wake her up only to realize Stephanie wasn't there? 

(Those thoughts, the fingers dug into the damp sheets, had yet to stop the shaking in her hands.) 

Steph's mind traveled to that coffee thing with Detective Gage she had to suppose to have; not "coffee" like Luke Cage "coffee" but simply it was nice to have a warm drink on a cold day when you're talking about the whole Asclepius/Hermes serial killer. (Food not so much, Steph had painfully learned.) 

Eventually Steph had a enough of such thoughts. She swung her legs off the bed and got up to turn on the lights for her room. She snatched her drawing pad off the wooden desk that, like the vanity, looked like an antique. Stephanie also grabbed the coffee cup full of colored pencils before crawling back into bed. 

It had been on her mind a lot. Homework for Gotham U was hard enough in her time with the technology they had but here? A nightmare. So that's why she's just now sketching out ideas....Seriously, Steph didn't know who had it worst the young adults without the technology or her who knew about it but didn't have access to it. 

Anyway, Steph thought as she crumbled a piece a paper up, Barbara was Batgirl and young her was going to become Spoiler so what would she be? Steph didn't know but that wasn't stopping her from drawing some costume designs. 

It was a no brainer about there being purple. In all her past hero personas she'd worn a cape but that didn't mean she had to have one. 

How did Dick come up with the name Nightwing? Steph wondered, teeth digging into her lip in concentration as she drew. She knew that Jason had become Red Hood because it was apparently the Joker's old alias before he took to furthering the unemployment of clowns with the help of Stephen King's IT. 

Steph was startled out of her thoughts as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Without thought Steph swung her fist, purple colored pencil still clutched tightly in her closed palm, only to stop midway of the action. 

"Sorry," she breathed out. Her nightmares of the Joker and Barbara were more than just making sleep suck. They made her nervous because there had to be a shoe to drop and the waiting was making her- 

"I saw the light on. I figured the reason you were up was the same as mine," Jason explained to her. There was silence between them before Steph couldn't stand it anymore. 

"Well I guess I'll never get to scratch off 'unwillingly be sacrificed to Slenderman' my bucket list." The joke kinda (okay not kinda as much as absolutely) fell flat at the confused look in Jason's eyes. 

"Slenderman?" 

Steph winced. "My bad. He's a future creepy pasta thing." 

Jason confused expression growing would have been laughable if Steph wasn't saying hello to awkward silence her old friend that she'd come to see again. 

"...So nightmares keeping you up too?" Steph questioned him as she tapped the pencil against her sketch.

"My mom finally going to court for embezzling," Jason softly admitted to her. "I'm being called at witness." 

"Oh," Steph said and felt stupid because nothing else came to her mind. She could say sorry but Steph knew from personal experience people saying sorry when they didn't do shit to hurt you was kinda useless. 

Eventually something did come to Steph's mind, "But she knows who you are. Is it safe?" 

Jason shrugged, his awkwardness was screaming in body language and Steph didn't need to be Cas to know that. 

"Bruce is handling it," was the answer given. 

"Do you wanna talk about something else?" Steph asked. 

There was a pause between them again. The only noise in the room was whirling of the fan above them and the mindlessly tapping of a pencil against paper. 

Finally, Jason stopped just standing there and joined her on the bed. He sat the edge where her textbooks where closer to him than she was. 

"So where's young you?" Jason asked her. 

The tapping noise stopped. Steph's grip tightened around the colored pencil as she thought of past memories. Her being a civilian seemed like a lifetime ago. Now that lifetime ago was the present. 

"On the house's roof," Steph answered as she looked down. She wasn't focusing on her drawing or even the drying sheets. Steph was just looking down as she lost herself in memories. 

"I use to, uh, dream about seeing Batman during the night," Steph's voice was soft at the confession. She looked up after telling Jason that and there was something there in Jason's eyes. Not understanding but getting. Bruce, Barbara, Cas, and Tim were always the smartest in the group but right now Steph gets the feeling Jason is smart too. 

Jason's eyebrows were pulled together in thought, eyes narrowed at her. "Not now." 

"What?" 

Jason shook his head. "Not now. You don't dream of that now." 

Steph stared at him, words lost in her throat. Her silence was a noose around her throat.

**Author's Note:**

> And part one is done. I'm planning for part two being about Jason meeting young Steph and learning about War Games. 
> 
> *If I make any mistakes about canon forgive me I don't own that many Stephanie Brown comics before she was Batgirl in pre-52. It's not from serious lack of trying.


End file.
